2018 Power Rankings-Week 4
Introduction Fantasy football is so damn back and more intense than ever. In week two, the average margin of victory was 36.59 points. Thanks to two matchups that were decided by one play each, the average margin of victory this week was 15.85 points. Paddock 9 logged their worst game against Pain Train since November of 2011 (L, 142.43-148.63), and in doing so suffered the second narrowest margin of defeat in LOC history (0.08). I'd make a B.A.C. joke here but I already blew my good one in the thread. My creativity is way down because it's all being sucked into the final draft of my book (out soon). Elsewhere, league scoring leader GBM made a miraculous come from behind victory against Browns4You on Fitzpatrick's last completed pass of the night. It was an absolute bomb to Mike Evans, completing the 80-point comeback. Evans is doing this year what many expected him to do last year. We also had the only undefeated team lose, and the only winless team win. Finally, Papa's Posse recorded back-to-back wins for the first time since 2016. It's business as usual in the LOC, and by that I of course mean that chaos reigns supreme in the early goings of 2018. First is the Worst...No Wait, They're the Best. So GBM is in first place for the second time this season. It really got me thinking. I feel like I am always in first for like the first eight weeks of the season and then fade in time for playoffs. So I crunched the numbers. Here are the number of weeks each team has been in first place over the course of LOC history. Some glaring omissions here. Paddock 9 and Papa's Posse have never, not even for one week, been in first place. There have been 94 weeks in LOC history. Survivor Vikings knocked a lot of people off this week. Be sure to set your picks. I think there are three of us remaining. Don't know who we are because again...no names. But keep surviving! Stat Chat * Sweet Dee becomes the 7th team to reach 50 combined losses. They do so in a record-smashing 78 games. * Becoming the 4th team to reach 50 regular season wins, Pain Train leap frogs momma on the list. Momma has been stuck on 49 wins for two weeks. * Papa moves into a regular season tie with Paddock 9 at 38-56, 7th on the list. They face off in week seven. * GBM ties their franchise record for most consecutive games scoring over 200. Dating back to last season, this is the eighth game in the row in which they’ve broken the threshhold. They’ll look to set a new high water mark for the team in week four against Paddock 9. Shotti still holds the league record at 17. ** Ball’s fourth consecutive game over 200 is also a record for their franchise. It’s their third this season, and they also ended their last season (2012) with a 200+ point game. This moves them ahead of Sweet Dee and into a tie with Paddock 9 for 9th on the all-time list. * Paddock 9 becomes the first team to lose 20 games in the month of September. * GBM has now scored over 232 points in three straight games and five of the last six against The Duck Punchers. Trade Talk Another week, another trade. We didn't even have time to talk about the last trade! Browns4You traded Sony Michel to Paddock 9 in exchange for Geronimo and Mike Williams. Browns4You could have really used those two this week. They sat on the bench with 58.70 combined points. Now this week we have a certified blockbuster. Pain Train Receives: * Will Fuller V * Joe Mixon Sweet Dee Receives: * DeAndre Hopkins * Royce Freeman Who won this trade? Obviously, it's a time will tell scenario. For Pain Train, he's been trying to deal Hopkins basically since he drafted him. His feeling is that Will Fuller has the connection with Watson, not Hopkins. Well now, how true is that actually? So far this season Hopkins has 65.18 points and Fuller has 60.60. Comparable. But that doesn't tell the whole story because Hopkins has been targeted 32 times to Will Fuller's 20, a whole four extra targets per game. Hopkins has as many receptions as Fuller has targets. While Dee gains a first round pick with Hopkins, they lose Joe Mixon. As someone who has never been crazy about Mixon, I think this is a pretty safe breakup. HOWEVAH, Dee also just lost Sexy Rexy to IR. That puts Dion Lewis at the helm as the RB2. There's thin and then there's anorexia. Royce Freeman has been getting eaten alive by Lindsay so far this season, but maybe Linds will punch his way out of the starting role and give Freeman some carries to chew on. Power Rankings 1(1). The Shotti Bunch (2-1) Now we're cookin'! Vintage Shotti performance this week. He loses his first round pick and still has his RB's average 20.31 on the week. It helps that Calvin Ridley is a freak show. The 13th round pick might be this year's early candidate for the Michael Thomas Steal of the Draft Award. That being said, they head into their week 4 matchup with arch nemesis RIPDab possibly down both AJ Green and Dalvin Cook. But it's Shotti, so they'll both play and put up 100 points. 2(2). Garoppoblow Me (2-1) I'm that ass hole that has zero fun playing fantasy football unless he wins. Like, I don't even enjoy Sundays unless I'm up. I can't even say "well it's still early." From kickoff it's basically either "Yeah I'm winning," or "Fuck I lost." And the line between is thinner than a hair on Pat's head. That being said, crazy win from Fitzmagic, a late addition to the roster following Wilson's troublesome start to the season. Their trend of beating the good teams continues, but they're 0-1 vs. bad teams and face another one this week: Paddock 9. #PrayForGBM. 3(4). WhatCanBrownsDo4You? (1-2) Not enough. 4(6). RIPDab (1-2) Potent lineup for RIPDab with Coleman leading the way for Atlanta in Freeman's absence. The scary part is that OBJ and Julio haven't really gotten going yet. There is so much potential with this team, but the fact that they're still RIPDab and it's an Even Year really makes it tough for me to give this group my full endorsement. 5(7). Papa's Posse (2-1) So far so healthy for PP. Let's see what they can do against rival Sweet Dee this week. David Johnson is not getting the touches he needs to be elite, but with ten players in double digits this week, this is a very balanced team capable of going toe-to-toe with everyone. 6(3). Sweet Dee (2-1) Please don't do this to us. In typical Dee fashion, SD has scored less in each week this season and is out a tight end heading into a big game against Papa this weekend. Is this the beginning of the October Dee Dive or can they pull this together in time to get the W? 7(5). Bell of Da Ball (1-2) The scoring is there but the wins haven't been just yet. Maybe their game with Momma is just what the doctor ordered. They went 0-2 against MMMS in Momma's championship season back in '12 but maybe the dynamic has changed this season. Bell is flush with TE talent. Maybe they should make something happen with Dee (credit to me for breaking the news if a trade goes through). 8(9). Pain Train WOO WOO (2-1) Easily the worst 2-1 team of all time, right? But they're 2-1, and half the league can't say that right now. So all we can do is tip our cap and call them our daddy....Wait, what the fuck am I doing? No! I will not let this guy get in my head just because he's beaten me a billion times. Pain Train is in major trouble this week as they are far outclassed by the powerful Browns and will need to say his hail Mary's to stay above .500. 9(8). Paddock 9 (1-2) What the fuck was P9 thinking? He pulls a stunt I thought even he was incapable of pulling and drops Will Lutz, an able-bodied kicker heading into a piece of cake matchup with Atlanta, and picks up Dan Bailey, who had yet to kick a football for an NFL team this season. Guess which of those guys scored 17 points and which scored 0? And guess who lost by 0.08 points? Look, I'm all for trying to gain an advantage any way you can. But I learned years ago that if you think about kickers too much, it's going to hurt you more than help you. Just grab a guy with a late bye on a decent offense and let him sit there in the K spot until you need to move him. 10(10). ma ma momma said (1-2) This team is starting to look like the Garoppoblow-Less 49ers. They need to pull off the upset against Ball this week and salvage their September and gain some respect. Matchup of the Week Last week we had both quarterfinal rematches from last season, with the same results as in the Festival of Champions. This week we have the Glory Bowl VII rematch that everyone will be watching. Only GBM and RIP have faced off more times than RIP and TSB (16-15), but the sixteenth round of this fight is going down over the weekend. Starting with a massive TNF game with Kupp vs. Cook, RIPDab will look to break their two-game skid and move the series to an almost respectable 5-11. Next Week... I'm almost out of the weeds, so thanks for hanging in there with the rankings thus far. They've been below average, in my opinion.